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This book invites the reader to follow seemingly unrelated paths towards the same goal: making sense of what it means to be human in a world that casually blends discourses on nature, technology, and biology with ideas of progress, optimization and their capitalization at the centre. The author critically analyses current thinking which often looks at technological solutions to the challenges posed by climate change, and where artificial intelligence is instrumental in fulfilling the promise of ecological capitalism. He instead advocates that we take a closer look at the politics of optimization within and outside managerial perspectives, which could reveal that one of the main sources of our repeated failures related to governance and climate change lies not intrinsically in the qualities of the tools we use, but in the underlying assumptions with which we design, and in the scope of their use. Therefore, the book looks at possible solutions for humanity that may lie between the rock of technology and the hard place of nature. That is, it asks for a revision in our implicit assumptions for building our tools; critiques the thinking about our relationships with them; and re-assesses their use.
Richly documented, imaginatively argued, and captivatingly written, this book explores unexpected entanglements of nature, culture, and technology that emerge in A.I. s unruly and unforeseen trajectories.
- George Paul Meiu, Professor of Anthropology, University of Basel
Balasescu develops wide-ranging thick-descriptions that provocatively draw together lotus flowers and data banks, snakes and algorithms to delve into how bodies, cultures and power are invisibly ensconced in every aspect of the digital realm.
- Susan Ossman, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of California Riverside
This important work traces the evolution and development of the paradigms that made artificial intelligence possible and perhaps even inevitable.
List of contents
Introduction: Between Nature and Technology.- ACT I: HERE AND NOW.- What s (the) Matter?.- Body Matters.- Culture Matters.- ACT II - PAST TRACES OF THE FUTURE.- Knowing Nature.- Data, Facts, Reality.- Survey and Reward.- ACT III - WHERE TO?.- AI and diverse ways of knowing.- The Non-human Stakeholders.- What Now?.
About the author
Alexandru Balesescu, PhD, is an anthropologist. He obtained his PhD in 2004 from the University of California, Irvine, with a thesis that was published as a book: Paris Chic, Tehran Thrills. Aesthetic Bodies, Political Subjects (Zeta Books, 2007). He explores different domains centred on personal curiosity and desire to understand human phenomena in a systemic manner. He is currently based in Bucharest, and also teaches at Royal Roads University, Victoria, Canada. He additionally consults in marketing research. Alec publishes regularly in both specialty and popular journals and think-tank publications, mainly on the topic of body, energy transition, urbanism, international politics, and more recently artificial intelligence. He regularly gives lectures in different universities around the world, most recently at the SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences, and Hainan University in China - the latter as part of the Royal Roads University permanent exchange programs he is part of. He is co-founder of the Nature, Art and Habitat Lab in Northern Italy (NAHR.IT) and of the Moving Matters Travelling Workshop at the University of California, Riverside. He is also a member of the Consulting Committee on Climate Action at Royal Roads University.
Summary
This book invites the reader to follow seemingly unrelated paths towards the same goal: making sense of what it means to be human in a world that casually blends discourses on nature, technology, and biology with ideas of progress, optimization and their capitalization at the centre. The author critically analyses current thinking which often looks at technological solutions to the challenges posed by climate change, and where artificial intelligence is instrumental in fulfilling the promise of ecological capitalism. He instead advocates that we take a closer look at the politics of optimization within and outside managerial perspectives, which could reveal that one of the main sources of our repeated failures related to governance and climate change lies not intrinsically in the qualities of the tools we use, but in the underlying assumptions with which we design, and in the scope of their use. Therefore, the book looks at possible solutions for humanity that may lie between the rock of technology and the hard place of nature. That is, it asks for a revision in our implicit assumptions for building our tools; critiques the thinking about our relationships with them; and re-assesses their use.
Richly documented, imaginatively argued, and captivatingly written, this book explores unexpected entanglements of nature, culture, and technology that emerge in A.I.’s unruly and unforeseen trajectories.
- George Paul Meiu, Professor of Anthropology, University of Basel
Balasescu develops wide-ranging thick-descriptions that provocatively draw together lotus flowers and data banks, snakes and algorithms to delve into how bodies, cultures and power are invisibly ensconced in every aspect of the digital realm.
- Susan Ossman, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of California Riverside
This important work traces the evolution and development of the paradigms that made artificial intelligence possible and perhaps even inevitable.
- Guy Nasmyth, Associate faculty, Royal Roads University
Alec Balasescu skillfully broadens our horizons for not just nuanced thinking and diverse ways of knowing, but in a fast-changing landscape how we might more consciously choose to act and relate to nature.
- Wanda Krause, award-winning author, program head Global Leadership and associate professor, Royal Roads University
